1. Technical Field
The present application relates to a beverage bottling plant for filling bottles with a liquid beverage filling material having a bottle closing device, and a closure applying machine described herein below.
2. Background Information
A beverage bottling plant for filling bottles with a liquid beverage filling material can possibly comprise a beverage filling machine with a plurality of beverage filling positions, each beverage filling position having a beverage filling device for filling bottles with liquid beverage filling material. The filling devices may have an apparatus designed to introduce a predetermined volume of liquid beverage filling material into the interior of bottles to a substantially predetermined level of liquid beverage filling material. The apparatus designed to introduce a predetermined flow of liquid beverage filling material further comprises an apparatus that is designed to terminate the filling of the beverage bottles upon the liquid beverage filling material reaching the predetermined level in bottles. There may also be provided a conveyer arrangement that is designed to move bottles, for example, from an inspecting machine to the filling machine. Upon filling, a closing station closes the filled bottles. There may further be provided a conveyer arrangement configured to transfer filled bottles from the filling machine to the closing station. Bottles may be labeled in a labeling station, the labeling station having a conveyer arrangement to receive bottles and to output bottles. The closing station and the labeling station may be connected by a corresponding conveyer arrangement.
Closure applying machines for closing of containers, such as, for example, bottles, cans, canisters, or the like, by way of positioning caps at the top for capping, or by way of screwing of screw caps at the top for capping, said caps being made of metal or plastic, either with or without a screw threading that is part of the cap, are essentially known, such as, from U.S. Pat. No. 2,076,631 or from European Patent No. 0 521 581.
In such closure applying machines, a plurality of closure applying positions are provided in evenly-distributed manner at the circumference of a rotatable machine rotor, to which positions the containers to be closed are transferred at a container input and the closed containers are removed therefrom at a container output.
Each closure applying position has a container support and a screw spindle that has at a lowermost end a screw head and that can rotate about a container axis or, respectively, can rotate about a spindle axis, with the screw spindle comprising a drive configured to rotate the screw spindle, with the drive of the screw spindle being configured to be adjustable or, respectively, being configured to be controllable with respect to the torque that is to be transferred to the screw heads and/or being configured to be controllable with respect to the number of revolutions of the screw heads.
In known arrangements, the screw caps are respectively moved by a carrier that is arranged at each closure applying element, and the screw caps are moved in upward direction along an inclined plane. While being moved in the upward direction, the screw caps are urged into the screw heads, are precisely positioned above the screw caps, and in the precisely aligned position they are clamped to the screw head. This procedure provides that the screw caps are ready for application in the subsequent closing operation.
In the following only those closure applying machines are dealt with in which the screw-units remain at the same height-level during one rotation.
In such closure applying machines, the containers to be closed are lifted and, accordingly, they are urged against the screw heads that are spring-biased or, respectively, they are urged against the screw caps that are disposed in the screw heads, and these screw caps are screwed onto the container mouths by the rotatable screw heads. Subsequently, the now closed containers are lowered again and removed from the closure applying machine.
The present application is particularly concerned with closing of containers, such as, bottles, cans, or canisters that are configured with a screw threading that is providing a finished screw threading.
In such closure applying machines, but also in other machines that are comparable in terms of operation, there arises a repeated clamping action such that individual screw caps are attached to the screw heads to such an extent that this connection is not severed upon closing of the container and upon lowering of the container support.
As a consequence, the screw cap and the container that is closed by the screw cap together can not leave the closure applying machine, but instead can cause soiling, production disruptions, or even serious damage to the closure applying machine during the next rotation.
Based on the knowledge of the applicant of the prior art, no proposals for the solutions of this problem have been advanced for closure applying machines in which the screw-units remain at one height-level during one rotation.
An example of a possible embodiment of a closure applying machine for putting caps on bottles may be found in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/982,694, and entitled “A beverage bottling plant for filling bottles with a liquid beverage filling material having a closing machine for closing containers,” which application was filed on Nov. 5, 2004. The above U.S. patent application is hereby incorporated by reference as if set forth in its entirety herein.